Kiddo had been riding an 8 speed 24” trek for about 3 and a half years. She has her first tri next month and one of her friends wants her to try cyclocross too. I know my gravel grinder isn’t a lot slower than a road bike and it’s way more comfortable. I decided to get her a do it all gravel bike.
I’ve been interested in Canyon, but never ridden one and rarely see them in person. I ordered kiddo an aluminum frame Grizl based on quality components, overall pricing and brand reputation. So far it seems like a quality purchase.
I think your reasoning makes a lot of sense (I have 3 kids, all currently on 24" MTBs, and have similar ideas as you do for future bike purchases). With tire/wheel swaps you’ve got road, cross, and gravel all covered and gravel tires will be more comfortable/versatile for everyday riding. How tall is your kiddo?
She is 5’3” right now but has grown 3” a year the last two years. She turns 11 next month. I think she will be 5’10” or so when all done. Right now I have the seat post all the way down and she really likes the bike. She is a competitive swimmer but has no bike endurance currently. She really likes riding it and I was worried how quickly she’d take to drop bars. Her 24” Trek precaliber was a flat bar bike. She races it this Sunday. We’ll see how she does. It’s at the coast so it’ll be flat. I told her to pick a gear she likes and pedal. On her Trek it had shift numbers. On the new bike I told her this lever to make it harder to pedal and this one to make it easier. She seemed to pick it up pretty quickly.
I just got my wife the exact same bike. She’s a sporadic rider but wants to ride more with me. Her aging Spec Ruby needed a mate. She’s short (5’1”) and not a single local shop had a bike in stock that would fit. They all could order but so can I. I’ve been curious about canyon for a while and several locals ride them. So, we checked and canyon had one in stock in her size and on sale. We had budgeted $2500 but got it for $1700.
I was blown away with the quality and build. Super easy to assemble. It was flawless out of the box. It’s easily equal to a big brand bike.
My wife is 5’1” average torso length. We got her the 2XS. It’s been great. No issues at all. She hated the stock seat but that’s to be expected. It didn’t come tubeless but it was tubeless ready; we immediately converted it from tubes to tubeless. No problems at all with the conversion and the wheels hold air like all
of my other tubeless wheels.
We also hit a 2xs for kiddo. She is 5’3” today and I think the bike will fit her to 5’6”. She is still getting used to a drop bar bike so her seat is low, but we will raise it as she rides more. She swims so much riding is limited to weekends mostly, and this weekend is a swim meet weekend.
The quality of the bike and craftsmanship are very good. You get good components for your money with Canyon and a quality bike. I wish the welds were more aesthetic but that’s very minor in the big scheme of things. The bike is easily as nice and a better value than my Nukeproof gravel bike is.
Right now I’m seeing BMC ALR URS gravel bikes at blowout pricing. That would be a great choice too.
